Gillette Vector

I purchased the Vector recently for use as a travel razor when I didn’t want to deal with checking a bag, mailing blades ahead, or general TSA tomfoolery. I purchased from an Indian eBay seller along with 5 blades (4 + 1) for around $7. It took a little over two weeks to arrive, just in time for use on a trip.

The build quality of the Vector is indeed uninspiring. While it looks almost identical to the Contour Plus manufactured for the European market, it contains absolutely no metal (other than possibly the grips of the blade holder mechanism). It is very light weight but does feel balanced and grippy in your hand, much better than a disposable. I didn’t have any trouble with lively pivot mentioned by others. I think getting a proper pivot reaction is a function of having the blade seated 100% correctly which does take a bit more effort than you might think.

The Vector blades have a green Aloe lube strip that absorbs quite a bit of water and is very “snotty” (for lack of a better word) during the first couple of uses. The strip gets gooey to the point that you can see a string of material sticking as you pull the blade away from your face. This is similar to the Fusion strips and Schick Hydro gel, but calms down to normal cartridge lube strip with minimal “snottiness” after a couple of shaves.

Shave quality from the Vector blades was on par with what I’ve got from most other cartridge blades and disposables including the Sensor3, Mach3, Schick ST2, and Bic Metal. A single WTG pass gives nearly DFS, though it’s fading by mid-day. A 2-pass WTG/ATG gives true DFS that lasts into the early evening. That said, as is the case with all other carts, going 2-pass is taxing on the skin and can lead to notable burn by the third consecutive day. As such, this will likely only be my travel razor of choice for short trips and/or work trips where I will be visiting customers less frequently than 3 days in a row. As long as I take a day off after two consecutive 2-pass shave days, even if you still go 1-pass WTG, the burn can be minimized or eliminated.

Results were similar with bowl-lathered Proraso and Barbasol Yellow. After nearly 6 months of DE with only occasional cart use (traveling or in a hurry) I found myself quickly reverting to old bad habits like taking long sweeping strokes and not rinsing often enough. Focusing on decent technique similar to DE, specifically short repetitive strokes and frequent rinsing, yielded a much more acceptable result both in terms of closeness and comfort.

While the Vector will be a perfectly acceptable travel razor, one I won’t fret over losing if I leave it behind in a hotel bathroom, I’m not convinced it will last longer than a year or two given the fairly flimsy build quality. If/when it does break I’ll likely try to replace it with a European Contour Plus or one of the Schick Atra clones. I can’t see myself paying vintage metal Atra prices for a travel razor, however, and I do prefer the pivot over a fixed head like the Trac II (based on my experience with the Schick ST2).

Overall, I would recommend the Vector to anyone who wants to try an Atra style razor at a minimal cost, but don’t expect it to be the end-all of Atra razors if you end up using it frequently. The Vector blades are also quite acceptable AFTER you work through snottiness of the lube strip during the first couple of shaves. I’ll be trying more generic Atra blades in the coming months, specifically the DG Dorcos, Fred’s Personnas, and Wal-Mart Wilkinsons.

Got this razor last week and did a couple test shaves. Curiosity got the best of me and I was thinking about trying carts again for a while. An atra handle like the vector seemed like a good option.

Comind from a DE, this shaving system feels really cheap. It's very light and feels like you have to really press hard. The lube strip becomes very sticky, I decided to use a new US Atra cart instead of the indian one that came with it. When romoving the razor from your face you can see a rope of sticky stuff connecting the razor to your face. Plus, there isnt any feedback so you dont know if you're cutting anything, which comes with the territory of using a cart.

I would say this would be a fine travel razor, but daily use is out of the question for me. I will probably try a cart without the strip next.

I purchased this razor throught ebay via an indian vendor, considering the price, 5 $ with 5 cartridges i had nothing to lose.
I can say it shaves pretty well, doesn't give any irritation and it's cheap, comparing to the newer Fusion.
The lube strip works quite well also.

Well, certainly the Vector is not so sturdy and heavy as the Contour/Contour Plus razor sold in Europe 20 years ago, but still it is a very good razor. It is ridiculously cheap if you buy online. I even bought 2. They are good for travelling. And if you lose a Vector, it's not a big deal for $2.64. Also I can buy different cartridges online [Personna, Gillette, Schick, Wilkinson Sword]

topcattcw;1248724 said:

What's your Vector, Victor? (Sorry, I couldn't resist! )

Click to expand...

What's your clearance Clarence? I couldn't either!

I'm wondering if there's a difference in quality between the Vectors made in India and the ones made in China. My Indian-made vector is great.

I think the Vector is better put together than a modern Sensor!! That thing is a cheap piece of crap!!! I ordered the Vector on Ebay and it has more heft then the sensor, it also shaves unbelievably good!! Not quite as good as my DE but very passable.Whereas the Sensor shaves very poorly.

I wanted to try out an Atra, so I got a Gillette Vector Plus, and 15 blades off of Deal Extreme.

I can't believe how cheaply the handle is made!! Out of the box, the head rattles, and shakes like a cheap dollar store toy! There is a ton of play in it!

Overall, the shave is very nice, about on par with most cartridge blades. The blades seem fairly sharp, but I have only had one shave with it. The movement of the head is a little less than the Gillette Sensor.

The head has seemed to settle a little, after the first shave, as mentioned above. It's not quite as sloppy as it was out of the package.

Still, this is obviously a very cheaply made, almost all plastic product. I would have thought Gillette would design something quite a bit better if they were trying to move people away from DE's.

The handle does have a nice rubber grip on it, but the weight is not really there; especially when compared to the all metal Trac II Bump Fighter handle.

The "push to clean" feature is also pretty slick, and should work well.

Fortunately, I was able to score 2 original 1970's era, NOS, still in the box Atra's off of E-bay for about $10.00. So I doubt I will ever use this handle again, once those show up!

P.S. I never have tried the Atra in the past. My first razor was likely a Gillette Sensor.

What's your Vector, Victor? (Sorry, I couldn't resist! )

For sentimental reasons the ATRA razor is my favorite. First razor on my youth(the ol' black metal machined handle) this model is, by far, the best razor around.

Well i say this model refering the 80s handle because i can not see a wise sucessor of that name on this one. Atra is Atra, Vector is other thing.

That said i asked to a friend of mine who lived in Macau to bring me one.

Substandars mass production of course. Handle in cheapo rubber. Assembled in laziness.The standard Atra head is there but the Atra spirit is missing compared with the well balanced and hefty silver handle of the ol' days.

Anyway, someone trying to find what looks like a kind of Atra and a regular shave without fancy things can try this one.

Looks very good. Thanks for the post.

Very interesting review. But if you like the pivoting head in a twin why don't you see my Trac11 set on sale(this website) The razor is solid brass and weighs in at 3.4 oz. You can add a Merkur adapter sold at Classic Shaving or Ems Place for under $5. You then have a choice between Trac11,Atra and Sensor. Its like getting your cake and eating it too.

The Gillette Vector is the current version of the Atra that's being manufactured for the Asian market. Most are made in China and are available online, and at a decent price. You can purchase a Vector for less than five bucks, shipped.

A bit of background on the Vector: it's a standard Atra design that was introduced in the late seventies to replace the Trac II. The basic blade design was the same as the Trac II, updated to include a lube strip and a pivoting head. Love it or hate it, I still think that this is the best pivoting head razor ever made.

The Atra was later superseded by the Sensor, and was sold worldwide as the Contour. Production halted about ten years ago. Gillette has tried (unsuccessfully) for years to penetrate the razor market in India, which is 90% DE. Attempts at marketing cartridge razors there always fall flat, due to the prohibitive costs of the cartridges themselves.

In an effort to stake out new multi-blade ground there, Gillette took the decades old Atra design and started selling it as the Vector, with the blades selling for a reasonable price compared to the other cartridge razors on the market. So far it's been a profitable venture, though only time will tell if multi-blades take the place of DE's there. The cartridges for the Vector have come under close scrutiny by consumers, as they are often shoddily manufactured.

I can personally attest to the overall cheapness of the Vector. The thing weighs about as much as a disposable Bic, a featherweight in the world of plastic razors. From the pictures I thought that maybe the head was chrome, with a rubber handle, but the whole thing is painted plastic. The grip, however, is very good at what it does- thick texturing makes this hard to slip out of your wet little hands.

When I initially opened the pack, which came supplied with one cartridge, the first thing I noticed was the pivoting head. It was all over the place; if you've ever used a Schick Protector than you know what I'm talking about. Thankfully, after the first shave the head seemed to "settle" better, like it wasn't seated properly to begin with. The overall pivot now is like a cross between the original Atra and the Sensor, it has a slight degree of movement but it's not all over the place like the Mach III. Very easy to get a precision shave with. I personally hate pivoting heads, but the angle is so slight you won't even notice.

The blade that came supplied with it is another good example of why I hate cheap lube strips. I wiped my dry finger over it and the strip fell to the floor. I ran my fingernail over the glue dots that held it in place and scraped them off, and proceeded to shave.

Well, I was surprised. The blade was reasonably sharp, and with one pass I had a DFS. I did a little touch up to a couple of spots on my beard and ended up with a BBS. The blades rinse clean well; this particular cartridge has the mash button on the top that extends the top blade out to aid in removing whiskers from the cartridge. Some people hate these mechanisms, but on this particular razor it did the trick and was greatly appreciated.

So far I've had four shaves with the same blade, and doesn't seem the least bit dull yet. Why Gillette can't manufacture a blade like this- a self cleaning, mildly pivoting, reasonably priced, sharp twin blade with no lube strip- for the US market, I'll never know. I suspect that it would eat into their MIII and Fusion profits.

I honestly don't see the razor itself holding up well over the years, though. It's designed like a cheap throwaway- honestly the disposable version of the Mach III seems better suited to longevity than the Vector. I also wish that the thing had some sort of heft to it- I guess if you've never used a nice wood or metal handled Atra you wouldn't know what you're missing.

Anyway, I'm going to use this razor with some Personna's, and possibly a genuine Gillette Atra blade, and see how it holds up. It's fun, cheap, fast and easy (insert a filthy "blonde joke" here) and will probably become my favored travel razor. I wouldn't cry if this got lost in transit, but I'd probably order another one just the same.